Coexistence, My Ass! had a limited theatrical release at New York’s IFC Center in October and November of 2025.
By Elazar Abrahams
As we enter the new year, I find myself with a large backlog of articles that still need to be written. See, I got married in September, and while 2025 was incredible because of that, it also meant that TV and City took a backseat. That’s valid, but there’s so much great entertainment out there that deserves to be shared with our readers. On top of that, I also accepted screeners and press tickets for a number of projects. Those perks come with the expectation that this site will be covering them, and I feel quite bad about that. Many of the shows and movies have long since premiered, and the theatrical productions closed as scheduled. Still, it feels only right to sit down, put pen to paper and get these pieces out into the world. Let’s hope 2026 will bring more great times and excuses, and more good art into all our lives.
Coexistence, My Ass! is one of those screening links that hit my inbox that I fell behind on covering. Regrettably so, because it’s unclear what the future holds for its US release after some limited screenings earlier this year.
The documentary is structured as a hybrid of sorts. It weaves together substantial chunks of peace activist Noam Shuster-Eliassi’s stand-up, then cuts back and forth into more traditional material that shows her the life and political reality surrounding the material. That format ends up being the film’s biggest strength, because the comedy is the engine, not just lighthearted fun. It’s how the documentary makes its arguments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it’s how it keeps the conversation moving when the subject matter is heavy.
Noam is a compelling subject, and the film frames her as both a performer and a person trying to think out loud about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a way that refuses easy slogans. I agreed with a lot of what she was saying. I did not agree with all of it. But what impressed me is that she presents her case in a way that actually made me question my own beliefs, rather than just triggering my defenses.
The most jarring material, for me, is when she’s on the ground in Israel at protests that are ostensibly “liberal,” and the conversations still reveal how casually dismissive even like-minded people can be toward Palestinian narratives. I’m describing this broadly because the film is less about one “gotcha” moment and more about a pattern that becomes hard to unsee once you’re looking for it.
The film pushed me into an uncomfortable second layer of self-reflection. I found myself thinking about how I react when these arguments come from different mouths. When I hear similar points from a Palestinian voice, I push back quickly. When Noam is the one making them, I listen. That is not a flattering realization, but it felt like the kind of realization the documentary is quietly demanding from viewers, even if it never says so explicitly. If you watch it in good faith, it has a way of making you examine your own internal biases.
It also helps that the film is pretty quick and to the point, with a runtime of about 95 minutes. That said, it does suffer a bit in the third act, but it’s no one’s fault. The film was being made across a period that includes the October 7, 2023 massacre and its aftermath, and you cannot ignore that event without making the entire project feel disconnected from reality. But once that rupture enters the film, it inevitably changes the rhythm. It upends the flow, and you can feel the documentary recalibrating in real time, trying to hold onto the original premise while acknowledging a new world in the Middle East.
If you’re someone who wants to engage with this subject, please seek this out! Even when I disagreed, I found it thoughtful and challenging.
I give Coexistence, My Ass! a B+.
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